Dave Hone

The reason you get pale lions in the south is because it's close to the equator because it's too hot.

So there's the trade-off because if you have a really black mane, yeah, all the males know you're rock and all the females know you're super sexy, but you just die of overheating.

The trade-off is if the heat's going to kill you, you're probably better off being a bit paler

and surviving in order to reproduce than you are being jet black or just dying instantly as soon as it gets hot.

Yeah.

And that's probably what's happening with the theropods.

All the little crests and horns, Ceratosaurus, Dilophosaurus, Tyrannosaurs, Allosaurs have big crests over the eyes, and all kinds of others.

I've written about this.

I think this is the trade-off.

You're going for the sexiest look, and the sexiest look is the biggest horns or the biggest spikes and whatever is on the head.

Probably also then with the brightest colors and the most display patterns.

But also this gives you a way to your prey.

If you're trying to hide or you're trying to sneak up on something, being brightly colored or having stripes or all this extra stuff on your head, you get spotted.

But then that's the trade-off is if I'm this big and my horns are this big and this red and yellow and I can still run those guys down and hunt them and kill them and eat them, then look how great I must be.

Whereas that little guy, he's only got weedy little crests and they're really dark because he's so bad at catching stuff, he doesn't have the extra energy to grow big crests.

And that's why, but when you're a herbivore, you don't have that pressure.

Particularly something like, this is Protoceratops, but something like Triceratops and these guys, they're living in big groups.

You can't hide from a predator when you're a group of 20 animals that are 10 tons each.

So who cares?

You just grow the biggest signal you can possibly grow.